Mae West: Gingerly

MAE WEST was inspired by "The Hairy Ape," a popular play written by Eugene O'Neill.
• • She certainly saw it once — — and possibly twice — — before it ended its Broadway run at the Plymouth Theatre [236 West 45th Street, NYC] on the 1st of July 1922.
• • July 28th — 29th, 1922 • •
• • For the out-of-town try-outs of her new show "The Ginger Box Revue" in Connecticut on July 28 and July 29th, 1922, Mae West had polished her parody of O'Neill's tragic hero.
• • According to biographer Emily Wortis Leider, Mae West burlesqued the character: “Yank was the very sort of brutish caveman type Mae West favored as a foil to play against, onstage and off — — in O’Neill’s hands a somber and powerful archetype, and in hers a comic cartoon rendered with broad strokes.”
• • Backed by a dozen chorines (the Stoker Girls) and a black orchestra, Mae sang, “Eugene O’Neill, You’ve Put a Curse on Broadway” and bellowed “Yank-style” lines including, “She don me doit! Lemme up! I’ll show her who’s an ape.”
• • Rehearse your favorite Mae West lines right on Broadway on Sunday afternoon 16 August 2009, when a guided tour will explore Manhattan's WEST-side during the "Gaudy Girls on The Great White Way: Mae West and Texas Guinan in the Theatre District" walking tour. The annual event — — open to the public — — is timed to salute the Brooklyn bombshell on her birthdate: 17 August 1893.
• • Come up and see Mae every day online: http://MaeWest.blogspot.com/
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Mae West
• • Photo: • • Mae West • • 1923 • •
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Mae West.